The Forsaken
by dantesdarkqueen
Summary: There are two sides to every story. These are the tales of the children who were transformed, manipulated, and forsaken, and of the people who made them that way and witnessed their pain.
1. Genesis: Blood for Ink

**Summary: **There are two sides to every story. These are the tales of the children who were transformed, manipulated, and forsaken, and of the people who made them that way.

**Disclaimer: **I own none of these characters. Any OCs mentioned, however, are mine.

**Queen's Quornor: **I've wanted to know the specifics of the various Jenova Project experiments for quite some time now, beyond what the games tell us. Problem is, if anybody has written something like that down, it doesn't exist on the Net. And the stuff that might give me a better idea of what went on only seems to exist in Japan. So, I said to myself, why not work it out yourself? This was originally just going to be Genesis, Angeal, and Sephiroth, but I'm extending it to include Weiss and Nero, too. They meet the criteria, after all.

Genesis: Written in Blood

_When Gast first recovered Jenova, we all saw her as a stepping-stone in human evolution. Here was an Ancient, a member of that mystical race that died out centuries ago; with its cells, we could recreate them, or strengthen humanity to the point that they met, matched, and surpassed the Ancients! _

_But first, we needed human subjects. Adults were all well and good, but what we truly needed were unborn fetuses. We needed to perfect xenogenesis in their bodies, if we wanted to create true Ancients. Morality was useless in the pursuit of science. If you allow concern for your subjects to get in your way, then you will accomplish nothing. _

_I hypothesized that it was better in the long run to work up to injecting Jenova cells into a human fetus. Better to modify the cells and create a hybrid specimen first, to study how much stronger it was than a human before studying a fully Ancient specimen and comparing the results between the two and a human subject. Thus I proposed an experiment with my research partner, Gillian: she would take the cells into her body, and undergo xenogenesis. Then we would use her cells to create a hybrid, using a volunteered fetus. Two of the lab technicians had agreed to comply once Phase 1 of Project G was complete. Following xenogenesis in Gillian, they would provide us with a viable fetus. _

_Phase 1 was completed without incident, and the experiment was stalled until the female technician became pregnant. Once it was confirmed that she was pregnant, the embryo was removed from its mother and installed within an artificial uterus I had created. We had to wait until it was clear that the embryo had survived the transfer, and then it was injected with cells harvested from Gillian. I watched the subject's development from the transparent window I had installed in the uterus, straining to catch a glimpse of anything unusual. _

_It was during this time that I chose the subject's name: Genesis, 'the beginning'. Hojo was carrying on his own project in Nibelheim, but his experiment would not succeed, particularly not since he was allowing the subject's mother to carry it rather than removing it for closer monitoring. My experiment would mark the dawn of a new era of scientific discovery, and an eventual career as the Head of the Scientific Department. The subject's birth would be evolution, its development the pure definition of humanity's return to its roots. And from this subject would come the blueprints to recreating the Ancients in our day and age!_

_But as I watched, day after day, nothing unusual occurred. The fetus delivered normally, and at the end of the gestation period I was left with a completely normal male infant. _

_Project S had also delivered results: a male child with a cap of silver hair. Hojo had already sent reports to the main labs at Shinra, crowing about how his subject was already displaying traits unlike anything observed in human infants. My subject, however, had yet to show any clear difference from his human counterparts. Despite the changes observed in Gillian, the lack of evidence in Genesis eventually led to further funding for Hojo and less for me. At last it was decided that those involved with Project G were to be removed to a small village outside of Midgar. _

_I was outraged. This was supposed to be the experiment to end all experiments! My greatest experiment! The next stage in human evolution! And they were just throwing him away like some second-rate scientist's failed test subject! _

_But then it occurred to me that perhaps this isolation was precisely what Genesis needed to prove that he was different. In Banora, I could monitor his development more closely than was possible at Shinra. Furthermore, growing up in a small village would allow me to study his social development, something Hojo had deemed unimportant in his project. Yet another way to show how I was the superior scientist! _

_Genesis was returned to his biological parents, who were given the highest status in the village for their part in the experiment. Initially the position was offered to Gillian, but she refused it, choosing instead to live in poverty with another lab technician, even while pregnant with my child. So Mr. Rhapsodos eagerly accepted the position as the village landlord, and with his wife began to raise their son. _

_Genesis _was _different. He proved that as time passed and his superior intellect began to emerge, his physical abilities developing at a faster rate than those of normal human children. The only comparable child was the child I had sired on Gillian, Angeal, who displayed similar development. Their social growth was disappointingly devoid of information; as far as personality and personal interactions, they were no different from any other child. There was one odd development in Genesis, however. He seemed slightly unstable, prone to violent outbursts at random moments. Sometimes he would go months without an episode, but then there would be one every other day. At such moments, Angeal was the only person capable of calming him. I tried to calculate any correlation between these outbursts, but none of my theories proved valid. I was left with the conclusion that Genesis kept so much emotion bottled up inside his mind that it sometimes overflowed, resulting in him lashing out any everybody around him for a brief time. All of us in Banora learned that it was better to let his rage play itself out rather than interfere; he was very capable of dealing grevious damage to normal humans. _

_He plans to join SOLDIER soon, along with Angeal. I am certain that his intellect and power will launch him to the top in no time, and once he has proven his superiority to Hojo's subject, I will be promoted to the position of Head of the Science Department. Hojo is a second-rate scientist, unfit for the position. It will belong to me! _

_It is only a matter of time now. The beginning is already here. The rest of the story will follow in due course. I must be patient. _

* * *

_They all betrayed me. Every last one of them. My parents, Hollander, the villagers... From the very moment of my conception, they betrayed me. _

_Those experiments could have killed me. My demise would have mattered nothing to them. They would have merely waited until another fetus was available, then tried again. Over and over again, until something survived. It just happened to succeed the first time, and produced me. _

_A monster. A man-made mockery of life. An abomination._

_They wanted to create an Ancient. Instead they produced me, a monster neither human nor Ancient. I trusted them, and they betrayed me. Again and again and again. Why should they protect a monster like me?_

_Three friends go to war. One is captured, another flees, and the third goes on to become a hero. Three friends... But who is to be the hero? Angeal would flee, I know. He is a useful tool because of his loyalty to me, and the way his honor allows me to manipulate him, but he would not confront his fate head-on. Then who is left to be captured? Who would become the hero? _

_Sephiroth is the hero, as far as his many admirers are concerned. But what if he was the one captured? I could be the hero in his place, destroying my oppressors and purifying this world. _

_I am a monster. I am dying, day by day. But that does not mean that I will die alone and forgotten. I will make my mark upon this world by destroying Shinra and uncovering the 'gift of the goddess'. When I find it, the degradation will be stopped and I will be a hero. Sephiroth is already captured, in a sense; he is a pawn of the Shinra dogs, and even if he breaks those chains he will fall prey to a more powerful master. Angeal will flee his fate. _

_We will reveal the final act of _Loveless _with our flesh and blood. Those traitors who molded me will serve as ink, this world as paper. And if I should die, this world goes with me. _

_It deserves nothing less. _


	2. Angeal: Honor Bound

**Summary: **There are two sides to every story. These are the tales of the children who were transformed, manipulated, and forsaken, and of the people who made them that way.

**Disclaimer: **I own none of these characters. Any OCs mentioned, however, are mine.

**Queen's Quornor:** Angeal's turn! For some reason, he's even harder to write than Genesis was. It's weird; I can empathize with Sephiroth and the remnants, I can see everything from Zack and Cloud's POV, but I can't wrap my head around Angeal's personality at all. He's a somewhat odd case because he doesn't seem to have been a planned experiment like Genesis and Sephiroth, but was still regarded as one. Maybe that's why he's so tormented later on in the game; he and Genesis were probably shielded from the scientific examinations and tests Sephiroth was put through, because they grew up in Banora, not in the science department, so they had no idea that they were so different at first. After all, they had parents. They had a childhood. They didn't have to join SOLDIER unless they wanted to. That may have contributed to their shock when the truth came to light later on, and why Genesis insists that everyone betrayed him and lied to him. I don't think Angeal quite knew what to do with himself during the last few weeks/months of his life.

Angeal: Honor Bound

_I had truly thought the experiment had taken away my ability to bear children. It was a reasonable theory; with all the tests Hollander ran on me, he never tested the Jenova cells' effects upon my reproductive abilities. That may have been a simple oversight on his part. Project G only called for my cells, not my eggs. I don't think it ever occured to him that I could bear children._

_Or perhaps it did. That night with him wasn't pleasent, but neither was it forceful._

_When I found out I was pregnant, my first thought was of the cells inside me. How would they affect my baby? I desperately wanted to know, but I didn't want my child to be claimed as an experiment like Gensis would be. So I kept the news of my pregnancy a secret until it became to obvious to hide anymore. _

_Hollander was ecstatic. Not because he would be a father, but because he would have two subjects to study instead of one. When I gave birth, however, he was very upset. My son showed no outward evidence of my cells' effects on him. His anger was my joy, because I had been afraid that the cells would make my child a monster. In my eyes, he was perfect. _

_I didn't find out until later that Hollander had taken samples of my son's cellular structure to examine. But from those samples, he uncovered what my cells had done to my son._

_Our isolation was a blessing, once we moved to Banora. Shinra funded the village, but that was the only evidence of their presence in our lives. Those of us involved with Hollander's experiment could live out our lives in peace. I married one of the former lab technicians, but it was only for appearance's sake. I never had any children with him, and he gave Angeal his name. My hope was that both Angeal and Genesis would grow up safe from scientific machinations, innocent and free._

_They were best friends as children. My son first met Genesis when they were both very young. Genesis' mother had come down to the main village to visit with the rest of us, and brought him with her. I was sitting outside while my son played with a caterpillar he'd found, and Genesis' mother put him down nearby. He toddled over to Angeal and sat down across from him, and my son let him see the fat green caterpillar. I can remember how Genesis giggled when the caterpillar started crawling up his arm, and the way my son laughed with him. They were always together after that, since Mrs. Rhapsodos would often bring him to play with Angeal during the day. They loved exploring and chasing after insects when they were little. When they got older, they began acting out scenes from _Loveless_, after Genesis found and read his father's copy of the piece. They took turns playing the characters, but if Genesis wanted to play the hero when it wasn't his turn, Angeal would always let him have the part. _

_I couldn't give my son the same gifts Genesis' parents could. But I made sure to raise him well. I taught him about honor, and he took those lessons to heart. He never took fruit from the Rhapsodos family's apple tree. He never hurt Genesis when they played, even when Genesis hurt him. He never lied, despite knowing that he was going to be punished. Angeal taught Genesis about honor, too, and sometimes he would lecture the other adults about it when they did something that didn't seem honorable to him. _

_They were such good boys. _

_All these years later, they finally found out. I don't know the details, but somehow Genesis found out about the experiments that made him, about me. Now he has killed all of the other villagers, including his parents. I am certain I know why he has left me alive. He wants me to help him attack the Shinra company, perhaps even use me to stop his body's degradation, or at least slow its progress._

_That cannot happen. Genesis has become a monster. While I have fond memories of him, he cannot be allowed to live. Not like this._

_I was worried about my son, but I have his friend's promise to look after him. Zack seems like a good man, and if I know my son he has instilled his sense of honor in him. He will not break his word. _

_Angeal came here a few minutes ago to retrieve his sword. He told me that he would take care of Genesis, and that he loved me. I told him the same before he left. I have waited this long. I cannot put it off any longer. _

_Allow me to die in peace. With honor._

* * *

_Genesis once asked me why my honor was so important to me. I told him that a man without honor was not a man at all. I don't think he quite understood what I meant at the time. But that's only part of why I consider my honor to be so important. Without honor, you cannot trust somebody. You cannot make a promise, nor keep it. Without honor, darker emotions will devour you. _

_That is the case with Genesis, I believe. He's abandoned his honor to pursue his vengeance, and let hatred take over his heart and mind. But he's also asked me to help him. _

_Do I abandon my honor as a SOLDIER, and hurt my friends and pupils, innocent people? Or do I relinquish my honor as a friend, my promise to help Genesis whenever he's in trouble? _

_Do I even have a right to honor anymore? I am a monster, as this wing on my back proclaims. My cells can create monsters, just like my mother's cells. Monsters do not have honor. But I am also a SOLDIER, a member of an honorable, elite group of gifted individuals. _

_Monster and SOLDIER... Are they one and the same? _

_All this time, was my view of honor a lie? Was I only kidding myself, thinking I could talk Genesis down from his plans for bloody vengeance and still retain my SOLDIER honor? I'm trying to stop him, even while Hollander continues to use my cells to make more copies. I'm helping Zack and Sephiroth, and furthering Genesis' goals at the same time. _

_What am I_ doing?

_Soldier or monster? Or both? Was my whole life a lie? A sin?_

_Sins must be atoned for. They say that lying is one of the greatest sins of all, and I have lied to everyone around me, as well as myself. I do not deserve to live anymore. Monsters don't deserve to live. _

_Let me atone for my sins. I won't die as my mother did, by my own hands on my sword. Let me die in battle, the last right of any SOLDIER. I am a monster, but do not deny me that right. _

_Let me have that much honor. It is all I deserve, and all that I have left. _


	3. Sephiroth: All for Shinra

**Summary: **There are two sides to every story. These are the tales of the children who were transformed, manipulated, and forsaken, and of the people who made them that way.

**Disclaimer: **I own none of these characters. Any OCs mentioned, however, are mine.

**Queen's Quornor:** I've already written one view of this part of the Jenova project in "Give Me Back My Son!", so I couldn't write from Lucrecia's POV here. This left me with a truly distasteful person to work with, and unfortunately I can't torture him in this piece. Sephiroth was as easy to write as ever, but I did have some problems wording what he was telling me. On the whole, though, I'm pleased with how this chapter turned out. If it gets an emotional response out of me, then it meets my standards. And although I'm the one that wrote it, just reading the first part of this makes me want to load up FFVII or DOC just so I can kill him all over again.

Sephiroth: All for Shinra

_Project G. Ha! I'm surprised it even yielded results. Hollander had little concept of what he was fumbling with. Soddy calculations, rudimentary examinations, poor documentation... It's a wonder that any specimens resulted from his idiocy, let alone two!_

_Now my Project S, _there _was an experiment! Every possibility was calculated, all complications anticipated, and every variable accounted for prior to the specimen's conception. I chose Dr. Crescent as the best possible donor and carrier of the specimen, because her genetics had the greatest compatibility with mine and would allow the least chance for physical and mental disorders. But there were other females selected for the experiment, on the chance that something might happen to disrupt Crescent's reproductive abilities and render her useless for the experiment. Those females would later end up in Deepground as breeders. Every possible outcome was predicted and countermeasures prepared before Phase 1 ever went into effect. A true genius never leaves anything to chance._

_There was no concern that my experiment could be jeopardized by that useless Turk. Crescent's history with his sire, Dr. Valentine, would serve as an effective contraceptive; she was far too lost in her guilt to possibly jump in bed with his son. Professor Gast was likewise of no concern. I was the only possible partner for coitus in the doctor's vicinity. It was obvious that she would choose me to fertilize her eggs. _

_It came to pass, as expected, that Crescent became pregnant. She agreed to allowing the fetus to become the subject of Project S. I was going to use it anyway, but Gast insisted that Crescent make the choice. Free will has no place in science, as far as I'm concerned. _

_Valentine didn't understand the greatness of this experiment either. When Crescent collapsed after the Jenova cells grafted onto those of the fetus, he confronted me. Me! I shot him for his insolence, as he deserved. He was a fascinating study, useful for distraction once the day's tests had been run on Crescent. The experiments I performed on him were the basis for many of the Deepground experiments later on; without his contribution it would not have been possible to keep the DG specimens alive while they were altered. _

_Crescent grew attached to the specimen as it developed. I don't think it occurred to her that she would not be allowed to keep the specimen. It would be studied closely as it grew, and Crescent would not have allowed us to perform the necessary tests and studies on it. The specimen did not need a 'mother'. Such a presence would only disrupt and stunt its development. We were conducting a scientific experiment on a valuable specimen, not coddling a helpless child!_

_After Crescent gave birth, the specimen was removed to another section of the manor and she was sedated, as her screaming gave me a migraine. The specimen was thoroughly examined following his birth, and once the necessary data was collected, he was sent to Midgar. I had hand-picked a team of scientists to receive and care for him in my absence. Gast went with him, and it wasn't until years later that I discovered that he would often hold and soothe the specimen after routine tests, that he would _coddle _him. He tainted my specimen! Possibly altered the results of future tests!_

_It was so satisfying, to shoot him after recovering the last Ancient and the specimen he had provided for me. _

_I had planned to breed the two specimens once they reached sexual maturity. My specimen showed so much promise, and I was eager to see what he would produce when combined with a true descendant of the Ancients. He was severely punished when I was told that he was the one responsible for the two Ancients' escape. _

_It was the decision of the President to enter my specimen in the SOLDIER program. "Good for publicity," he said. "His abilities will be a perfect example to young men the world over of what SOLDIER can do for them. They'll want to join so they can be just like him." My precious specimen, put into an environment where I could not easily monitor him! He could be killed and I would have to start all over again! Fourteen years of work at risk just because the President wanted a poster boy!_

_Nobody appreciates the value of science anymore. I had wanted to enter him in the Deepground Project, but the President decided otherwise. My specimen was too iconic, too recognizable to just be hidden away where only the best scientists in the world could examine him. He was to be the SOLDIER mascot, the face on all the recruitment posters. My greatest experiment, useful only for luring young men into the military!_

_Short-sighted idiots. SOLDIER was a waste of my specimen!_

* * *

_I owe a lot to SOLDIER. It got me out of the labs, for one thing. I spent fourteen years in that white hell. After what I was put through there on a daily basis, ten mile endurance runs and a drill sergeant screaming in my face sounded like a dream._

_Besides, it was great to see the look on Hojo's face when I was informed of the decision and moved to the cadets' barracks. _

_SOLDIER was exacting, exhausting, but it took away the long periods when I had nothing to do but think about myself. In the labs, I was always left wondering why I was in there, why I felt so different. There were people with white hair working in the labs, but I never saw anyone with silver hair like mine. I wanted to know about my parents, too. Hojo told me that my mother was named Jenova, and that she had died after giving birth to me. But I never heard a word about my father, or where I was born and what my parents were like. I hated those hours in the labs when all I was capable of was shivering in the corner, too sick to move, and doing nothing but thinking._

_SOLDIER gave me things to do, less time to think. That alone was a gift. But I was also able to spend time with other people, even make friends. I discovered what 'fun' was, how to laugh and smile and joke. I know the military is sometimes described as a prison; to me, however, it was freedom. _

_But those questions have never quite left me alone. I've been thinking about them even more lately. How can I not when my first friends were created by experiments conducted by a Shinra scientist?_

_Could the same thing have happened to me?_

_SOLDIER has been my everything for eleven years now. But if I was created rather than born, then I want nothing to do with Shinra. I don't want to be their poster boy anymore, if they manufactured me to be as much. I definitely don't want to be anywhere near Hojo. _

_There's a library beneath Shinra Manor in Nibelheim, the site of my next mission. There might be documents there. _

_Tell me what I need to know. Then let me figure out who I am on my own. _


	4. Weiss: Immaculate Defiance

**Summary: **There are two sides to every story. These are the tales of the children who were transformed, manipulated, and forsaken, and of the people who made them that way.

**Disclaimer: **I own none of these characters. Any OCs mentioned, however, are mine.

**Queen's Quornor:** Just so you know, this guy is _hard _to write. There's practically no dialogue directly from Weiss rather than Hojo in DoC, and the DG game that apparently chronicles life underground prior to Weiss' revolution is only available in Japan. Nothing to draw from! As for the experiment that made him, I can't find details or even hints anywhere. But I have seen references to Weiss and Nero as 'light and darkness' or something along those lines. So that got me thinking: if it took the stagnant Lifestream to create Nero, and he embodies darkness, what could have given Weiss his light? Then I remembered that comment Hojo made about Omega's host being pure, and there not being any Jenova cells in the people Deepground was harvesting. This left me with a theory. I don't know it I'm right or not, but it would explain a lot of things. Initially I was going to have the first part written from some random scientist's POV, but then I had an idea. I don't know how accurate these events are, since I've heard that both Weiss and Nero were born and raised outside Shinra and taken into Deepground when they were older _and_ that they were born directly in Deepground and so never knew what life was like outside, but... Well, I think the chapter works okay.

Weiss: Immaculate Defiance

_I was one of the women chosen for the Jenova Project, the youngest woman selected. My reasons for accepting the offer were simple: I had no family, no home, and I wanted someone to love me. A baby would love me. We were told that we would get pregnant if we were chosen for the experiment, and I was eager to be chosen. _

_There wasn't any sex involved. The scientists simply started me on a treatment of fertility drugs and harvested some of my eggs, fertilized them, then deposited them inside my uterus. I thought it was simply run-of-the-mill in vitro. But I found out much, much later that all of the eggs had been injected with pure, unrefined mako, as close to the Lifestream as Shinra could get. I don't know why they didn't just inject me with it. When I asked, they wouldn't tell me. _

_I was closely monitored throughout the pregnancy. The scientists started running tests and ultrasounds on me when it became clear that my period wasn't coming anytime soon. At first I was told that eight of the eggs had successfully implanted, and I was more than a little surprised. I was under the impression that they would only be using a few of my eggs; was I going to end up with eight babies instead of one? _

_As the weeks went by, the scientists realized that the amniotic sacs were disappearing. It seemed like there was another one missing every time I went in for a test. A month after my pregnancy was confirmed, there were only three sacs left. _

_Only one was left by the second month. _

_We were all frantic, worrying that this one was going to die too. I was put through a thousand tests, hardly ever out of the labs as the scientists tried to discover what had cost my babies their lives, but they uncovered nothing unusual. At last the scientists concluded that my unborn babies had fought within me, that they were like tiger sharks and had an instinctive need to eliminate their competition. When I pleaded to know why they would do such a thing, I was told that they had no idea. But the lone survivor was obviously the strongest of the original eight, so I should not be so upset; I was getting a powerful child, the best one. _

_But all I could think of was how my baby would not be born an innocent. It was still in my womb, and already it was a killer._

_When I gave birth, I was expecting to see a little monster. Something hideous and deformed, a _thing_ I couldn't possibly love. But instead, I was handed a wailing bundle wrapped in clean blankets, skin flushed bright red and these little tufts of snowy hair sticking out every which-way, chubby fists shaking madly at the air. I went so far as to unwrap the blankets, searching for something to hate about him. But there was nothing wrong with him! He was perfect! Immaculate!_

_I just sat back and stared at him. I had laid him down between my legs, on his blankets, and he was still snuffling a little, calming down. As I watched him, he finally opened his eyes and looked at me. _

_His eyes were the color of the sky, with a ring of Lifestream circling the midnight pupils. Those eyes caught me, held me, spoke to me. I saw in them a pathetic, helpless child that needed care and protection, a desperate plea for me to love him. Those tiny fists unballed and spread towards me, as if begging me to take them and never let go. It was probably just him stretching, but I couldn't ignore him after that. _

_I wrapped him back in his blankets and picked him up, holding him close. He nuzzled at me, and I pushed my shirt up to let him feed. This child had murdered all of his siblings during the first trimester, but right now he was helpless, utterly defenseless. He needed me. _

_I couldn't help myself. I wanted to love him._

_My little Weiss._

_He was a joy. Shinra gave us a home in Midgar, outside the labs, and allowed me to raise him as I would on the condition that I brought him in every Monday for tests. I don't know what was done to him, but he never seemed too upset when he was done, so it couldn't have been that bad. Weiss never got sick, never even caught a cold. He wasn't very messy. He wasn't lazy. He did have a defiant streak, but he rarely disobeyed me. I loved my son, and he loved me._

_But there was something different about him. Weiss was smarter than most kids, walking and talking by the time he was six months old. Three months later, he'd trained himself out of diapers. He was reading and writing by age three. Not only was he so much smarter than any child I'd ever seen, but he was also stronger and faster. I remember telling him to tidy up his room once when he was three, and when I came in to check on him I found him holding his bed up with one hand while he pulled toys and dirty clothes out from underneath. When he couldn't sleep at night he'd go out and run up and down our building's stairs until he was exhausted, running so quickly that all anybody could see was a white blur, streaking up and down the nine flights. _

_Normal kids can't do things like that._

_It didn't bother me when he did such amazing things. He was still my son. I didn't care that he had these strange abilities. Weiss may not have been born innocent, but he was my child, and I loved him. _

_But I knew Weiss was lonely. He frightened the other adults in the building with his strength and intelligence, and so they kept their children away from him. I was all he had. _

_He needed someone to love him when I was gone. Somebody as different as he was. Somebody he could relate to and confide in._

_He needed a sibling. _

_I turned to Shinra, asked them to give me another child. They agreed after some tests, saying that they had a new experiment they wanted to perform anyway, and that there were many other women who had already been used and nothing had come of them. When I inquired as to the nature of the experiment, they refused to comment. Once again, they started me on fertility drugs and harvested my eggs for in vitro fertilization. I had always been curious about the identity of Weiss' father, so this time I asked who the sperm donor was. I was told that they were fertilizing my eggs with frozen sperm, and when I pressed for further details, the scientist revealed that it had come from a Turk who had gone missing many years ago._

_I was given less eggs this time. But they didn't survive. The scientists tried to plant my uterus with viable embryos three times, and all three attempts failed. They were planning to use yet another woman after the third failure, but I begged them to try me one last time. The scientists were pessimistic, but they grudgingly gave in and prepared one last batch of eggs. The entire time they were getting us ready, I prayed for a baby. I wanted a sibling for my son, a brother or sister to accompany him and be his friend._

_My prayers were answered. _

_This pregnancy has been so different from Weiss'. I've gotten weaker, and I'm sicker than I should be. Weiss is overjoyed that he's going to be a brother, so I've done my best to conceal my sickness from him. My weakness, however, has gotten so bad that he's doing most of the cooking and cleaning in our apartment. He has to support me when I walk. I know he's worried, so I'm doing my best to keep his spirit up. He doesn't need to know that I might not survive this birth. _

_I'm going to be transferred to the labs for close monitoring in a few weeks. There's only three months left until I give birth, and Weiss meets his baby brother or sister. I'm not about to tell him that he's probably going to gain his sibling at the loss of his mother. _

_I am just happy that there will be someone to love him. _

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

_Damn those Restrictors! They actually think I'll submit to them? That the threat of a virus will keep me from killing them? After all they've done to us?_

_I've suffered long enough. Nero has suffered enough. The Tsviets don't need those masked bastards. We are not animals!_

_I'll make them pay. For every humiliation, every pain they forced on us, they will suffer a thousand times worse. I'll free my brother and the other Tsviets, then lead the charge against the Restrictors. We'll gut them where they stand, rip those masks from their heads, and spit in their faces while they slowly bleed to death and feebly try to scoop their filthy innards back inside their ruined bodies. _

_This place has always been hell. But I can free us. I can kill the Restrictors and lead us out of here. I'll carve my way to the other Tsviets and we'll earn our freedom with blood and violence, just like any oppressed people!_

_The Restrictor who guards me is especially cocky and cruel. He has me chained to my throne, an emperor enslaved. I know he enjoys lording over me, takes pleasure in the fact that he has control over a man as powerful as me. I can't wait to see him sobbing at my feet, drowning in his own blood. _

_My swords will be delivered soon. Argento has put her very soul into them, fully aware of how I wish to use them. I intend for their first drink of blood to be that Restrictor's, for their pristine virgin blades to be deflowered by my jailer's flesh. _

_This place has always been hell. My blades will destroy the masked demons who dare to claim lordship over us, return to us a sliver of the life I knew before I was confined here. They will win us heaven on earth, freedom in this hell._

_Heaven and Earth..._

_The perfect names for the perfect blades. _

_Just you wait, you heartless bastard. I'll get out of these chains. And when I do, you'll pay for everything. Heaven and Earth will annihilate this hell you've created. And this virus won't kill me. I'll find the cure, so you won't have the pleasure of watching me join you in the Lifestream. All of us, from Tsviet to soldier, and especially my brother whom you fear so much, will be free and walk out of here, into the sunlight where we belong._

_I swear it. _


	5. Nero: Bleeding Darkness

**Summary: **There are two sides to every story. These are the tales of the children who were transformed, manipulated, and forsaken, and of the people who made them that way.

**Disclaimer: **I own none of these characters. Any OCs mentioned, however, are mine.

**Queen's Quornor:** Nero's not exactly difficult to write, but he is a bit time-consumning. Given that the only person who ever loved him, according to Nero, was Weiss, I figured he'd be the prime person to tell Nero's tale. Honestly, I do sympathize with Nero more than I would care to admit. He's not really one of my favorite characters, but I do sympathize with him. It's always a little startling, seeing yourself in people that only exist in cyberspace. Nero strikes me as having been a sensitive, empathetic child once; I think his callous nature in DoC might have been the result of building a defense against the daily horrors of Deepground. You know, experience makes us what we are and all that. A defenseless, sensitive, empathetic person wouldn't survive down there very long. It seems to be what happened to Shelke, so why couldn't the same be true of Nero? Small detail: I'm not sure how much older than Nero Weiss is, and the websites I've been checking don't say. Nero's supposed to be about twenty-three in DoC, but I can't find anything about Weiss. So the age difference between them is purely guesswork on my part.

Nero: Bleeding Darkness

_Mama always tried to act so strong. I knew there was something wrong with her, but she tried to hard to hide it that I pretended not to notice. She told me she was going to give me a little brother or sister, someone to love me. Someone who would be my friend. I asked her why I would need somebody else, when I had her. Mama simply gave me this sad smile and hugged me, telling me that I would need a friend in the future, because she couldn't be with me forever._

_That idea scared me. Mama was all I ever had. The concept that something could take her away, that she wouldn't be with me anymore, was beyond terrifying._

_Mama wasted away as the months passed. As she got skinnier and frailer, and her bones started showing up against her pale skin, her stomach got bigger and bigger. It was so unreal to me; my mama could barely walk around without my help, but sometimes when I laid my hand on her stomach I could feel something beating against my palm, getting stronger as she got weaker. _

_We were moved out of our home and into the labs during the seventh month. The scientists wanted to watch my mama, and she refused to go without me. So I was with her for the rest of the pregnancy. _

_I was there when she died._

_The scientists wanted me out of the room while Mama gave birth, but she simply gripped my hand and refused to let me go. Her eyes were so bright, so fierce when she told them that her son was going to see the birth of his only friend. I had promised Mama I would stay with her, because I just knew she wasn't going to survive. The baby was devouring her from the inside out, taking far more than she or the scientists could replenish. She barely had the strength to cry out or squeeze my hand as she bore down, pushing the baby out._

_Just before the last push, she turned to me, her eyes soft. "Weiss," she breathed. "Love your brother. Take care of Nero." All I could do was nod and bite back my tears as a baby's furious wail split the air and a cloud of violet-shot darkness rolled up over Mama's body, covering her entirely._

_When it vanished, Mama went with it. She was the first victim of my brother's all-consumning darkness. _

_The scientists were next, one after another. Nero screamed and screamed, drowning out their terrified cries as they vanished into the darkness. At last it was just the two of us, him wailing on the bed where the one scientist had dropped him, me crouching at the head with my hands gripping the covers Mama had lain on only minutes before. I couldn't stop staring at him. It wasn't out of fear or revulsion or anything; it was because he looked so different from the pictures of babies I'd seen. In movies and books, babies are always so perfect and pink when they come out. Nero was red all right, but he was blotchy, and covered with this yellow-white goo. Beneath the goo I could see black lines swirled all over his body, creating complex tattoos on his arms and chest and stomach. His inky hair was plastered to his skull, shiney and wet. _

_I watched him for a bit before it occurred to me that he must be freezing. He still cried as I approached, a little afraid of that darkness, but he didn't lash out at me the way he had the scientists. I grabbed one of the blankets sitting by the bed and started rubbing it over his skin, trying to clean him up a bit. Once he was dry I wrapped him in another blanket and picked him up. He was a lot cuter once he was clean, and because he was warmer he wasn't crying anymore. _

_I remembered my promise to Mama. After gathering a few things, I took Nero and ran all the way back to the apartment I'd shared with Mama. _

_I tried to raise him well. Nero wasn't a very demanding baby, so once I figured out what to feed him and how to change his diapers it wasn't so bad. I kept him in bed with me until he was four, just to prevent him from rolling onto the floor. I didn't have a crib to keep him in, and a babysitter was out of the question, so I fashioned this sling to keep him in when I needed both of my hands and would either tie the sling up in a corner and let him hang there, close to the floor in case it came loose and fell, or I'd wear it and carry him against my back or chest. He always slept better when he was close to me. The adults in the building left us alone for the most part; they were already afraid of me, so I didn't concern myself with them. Shinra also left us alone, though I'm not quite sure why. It wasn't easy being an adult at my age, but I did my best. _

_When Nero learned to walk and talk, I had a slight problem trying to keep him preoccupied while I did the chores. But he liked television, so I'd put it on an educational channel and he'd just sit on the floor or curl up on the sofa and watch it for hours. He really liked the History, World, Animal, and Eureka channels. Whenever he learned something interesting, he'd come find me and repeat it word for word, smiling, so proud for having remembered. Nero had a photographic memory, and it never ceased to amaze me how much he could recall from just a glance. _

_When he turned five I decided to start home-schooling him. I hadn't been able to go to school or get anybody to teach me, so I resolved to first learn how to do something myself and then teach Nero. I already knew how to read and write, so I taught him that while I learned arithmetic. He really didn't care for mathematics. Nero liked words. For awhile, he would read the dictionary for fun. By age seven, he knew more vocabulary than most of the adults I've ever met. _

_His darkness could be problematic at times. Sometimes I'd find him sitting on my bed at night, ashamed because he'd had a bad dream and had awoken to find his room filled with black clouds. His darkness could eat through anything, and it scared him that he had no control over it, especially when his emotions ran high. There was this neighbor we had who liked to make our lives miserable. He'd continually question us about our mama and where our daddies were and why we were so different. I thought the asshole was a pedophile, because he was always bringing up how cute I was and how pretty Nero was._

_Turned out I was right. He once tried to snatch Nero while he was reading in the hallway and I was cleaning in the apartment. I heard my brother shout my name, and when I got outside Nero was alone with a cloud of darkness. He threw his arms around me, crying that he was sorry and he hadn't meant to hurt him and things like that. It took me an hour to get him to calm down, but he finally told me that our neighbor had invited him into his apartment. When he refused, the man had grabbed his arm - Nero showed me the bruises - and tried to drag him away. Nero said that his darkness had just poured out of him and taken the man without him telling it to, the instant before he called my name. _

_He'd killed him. He hadn't meant to, but he had. _

_Nobody ever found out. There was no body to dispose of, and nobody had paid attention to Nero's cry. People just assumed that the man had skipped town. I never blamed Nero for the things his darkness did, just like I never blamed him for taking Mama. He couldn't help it back then. All I could do was hug him and try to make him feel better. _

_Shinra came to retrieve us when I was fourteen and Nero was ten. We were both put in SOLDIER; initially Nero was supposed to go into the labs, but I put up such a fuss that they finally agreed to make him a cadet, too. SOLDIER was hard on Nero, and not just because of his youth. The other cadets were always calling him a freak and Tattoo Boy and things like that, making his life hell. It stopped happening so often after I beat the shit out of the worst bullies, but the name-calling and taunting never really stopped. Nero tried so hard to learn to control his darkness and excel at basic training, and it hurt me that I could only watch him struggle. I couldn't help him learn to control his powers, but I did my best to teach him everything else. Neither of us had any friends, save each other. _

_We were in SOLDIER until we made First Class. Then we were sent out to retrieve a fellow First, Genesis. We'd heard of him, but we hadn't heard that he was still alive. We were told that it was extremely confidential information, and that the company had plans for Genesis once we brought him back. _

_A few days after we delivered him, Nero and I were taken aside for what we thought was a routine physical. But when we woke up several weeks later in mako healing tubes, we realized that they'd done something to us. The scientists who let us out informed us that we had received a special treatment in preparation for our transfer into Deepground, and it was several months before we found out they had spliced our genes with Genesis'. Not his cells, but his _genes_. Neither of us are sure what that did to us, though. Shortly thereafter, we were transferred into Deepground. _

_We are treated like animals down here. Those of higher rank can do whatever they want to the lower ranks without penalty. Ragnarok and the Restrictors can do anything to us, and all we can do is scream. I haven't had too much done to me, apart from this damned virus they injected into my neck. _

_Nero, however..._

_He's suffered so much since the elevator door clanged shut behind us. The members of Ragnarok are fascinated by his darkness, and the Restrictors fear him, and so they act accordingly. I think Ragnarok sees Nero as their mascot, just like Sephiroth is for SOLDIER. He is the darkness in the darkness, the brother of their most powerful Tsviet. So they've made him their mascot, uncaring of what he wants. They hauled him away from training one day to make him the first recipient of the skeletal, metal wings that adorn the Shrikes. He could barely move for weeks after that, as his body grew used to them, but those bastards still made him go through the daily training. He had only just finished healing when they told him to fly for the first time; I wanted to kill them for laughing while he was almost in tears from the strain and pain. He's not allowed to fly unless they say so, and only for short amounts of time. They confined his arms in that strait-jacket uniform, took away his ability to speak freely with that ridiculous mask. They say it was to help him control his powers, but I think it was only to humiliate him. My brother can neither feed nor bathe nor relieve himself because of that uniform, and when they allow him to do so, he must be accompanied by one of their group! He is granted no privacy whatsoever in addition to being bound like a prisoner. Both Ragnarok and the Restrictors confine him and parade him as they will, uncaring of the humiliation and pain this causes him. _

_I can't protect him from them. But if I could, I'd do everything in my power to keep him far from their reach. They have done more than enough damage to his mind, body, and spirit. My sweet, innocent, sensitive little brother has disappeared in favor of a callous, almost emotionless stranger. He doesn't cringe at the idea of killing anymore, not as he did when he was little. Taking lives never really bothered me, but it hurts me that that innocence was stripped so brutally from him by those heartless bastards. _

_Nero needs me. I'm all he has, the only person who has ever accepted him, darkness and all. If I revolt now, they'll punish me by hurting him again. _

_I can't let that happen. My brother has been through enough._

_I'll be a good, obedient Tsviet for now. But my power, and Nero's, grows daily. Soon they won't be able to hold us back. And when that day comes..._

_My brother can take off that mask, smile, and walk as a free man. _

* * *

_The time is near._

_The preparations are complete. My brother has asked me to ready our legions for battle, and they finally stand ready. Our reapers shall harvest the pure, the untouched, and deliver them back to Deepground. Those pure civilians will create a Lifestream, and that river of souls will open a path to Omega. _

_I know not why my brother desires to awaken Omega. But that is what he has called for, and so all of Deepground will answer that call. I have set Shelke to searching for the Protomateria with the records of Dr. Lucrecia Crescent, she who once theorized upon the nature of Chaos and Omega. Once he holds the Protomateria, my brother can call to Omega, and lead us to a new existence far removed from this mako-lit hell we know as Deepground._

_A new existence..._

_I dreamed of freedom while I languished in chains. I dreamed of my brother before he released me. And soon, he will lead us to the ultimate freedom, a new world untouched by pain. A matchless gift for one such as I, who has known nothing but. _

_I had thought him slightly different when he emerged from the depths of virtual reality, but attributed my memories of my brother to idealizations of a time before my agony. This was Weiss, my brother, not some phantom conjured up from the depths of imagination. It does not matter how he treats the lesser soldiers, nor that he seems more quick to anger than I recall. He is my brother, and I love him. I will do whatever he asks, out of love for him. He has been my rock in a sea of agony and humiliation, a sanctuary where pain will not settle. My brother has never struck me, nor spoke harshly to me. He would never do so, just as I would never dream of wounding him. _

_He has entrusted me with the secrets of his rebirth, his death as a mortal and awakening as Omega's host. I will not betray my brother's trust. I would give my life for him, should such a need arise. In his absence, his distraction, I have commanded Deepground to carry out his will. My brother is preparing for his role as Omega's host; he cannot afford to be distracted in this crucial time. And when our legions have departed and the untainted chosen begin to trickle into our reactor, I will give him my protection. _

_No one shall harm my beloved brother. No one shall tear us apart ever again. My protection, my allegiance, and my love all belong to him. _


End file.
